All Blacks Rebuild

All Blacks 9 - Ireland 16

The All Blacks failed to score a try. They've now lost 2 of the last 3 against Ireland. New Zealand rugby has to be honest about this and face it, by their own high standards the All Blacks are now weak and have to rebuild.

What is going wrong? Three things stand out as far as I can see:

1. Fitness - once one of the fittest teams in world rugby the All Blacks now seem to run out of puff as early as half way through the first half. That's too early, they need to train to go the full 80 minutes. Size has taken over from lean and mean, and size alone doesn't cut it I'm afraid. NZ teams are looking to steamroll their opponents, instead of being elusive and using the ball to beat their opponents.

2. They're selecting teams based on past record and popularity with the management. They need to get back to selecting teams based on current form, and dropping players that are not performing to expectations, including decision-making, yes that includes the captain Kieran Read.

3. Leadership on the field is not there. Things stay the same until the All Blacks ring the changes and replacements come on with a new set of instructions. This was starkly obvious in the latest Ireland game, when it was obvious they needed to keep the ball low at foot. They started doing this and getting somewhere well into the second half when replacements came on, but it should have been their tactic from the beginning. Why at foot and low? It keeps the team going forward, and gains field position. The opposition has to get down to pick up the ball, thus taking longer to return the kick. It keeps the defender turning around to defend as well.  Instead the All Blacks were putting in high kicks which Ireland could swiftly return, or the All Blacks would fumble trying to pick up their own kick (in many such cases the ball in this position really needed to be nudged ahead with the foot, putting further pressure on Ireland).

These three factors reflect poorly on management; they're not preparing the players, are being hidebound when they select and they're not making it clear how they expect the team to be led.

Compare the All Blacks with their women counterparts, the Black Ferns. They lost to France admittedly, but in every respect they surpass the men in my three areas of the game. They're fit, they select based on form and they're well led on the field.